Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids
Cultural Leonesa

Full name

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa

Nickname(s)

La Cultu
La Leonesa

Founded

5 August 1923; 101 years ago

Ground

Estadio Reino de León

Capacity

13,346

Owner

Aspire Academy (more than 99.74%)
4 minority stockholders (less than 0.26%)

President

Mohd Khalifa Al Suwadi

Head coach

Raúl Llona

League

Primera Federación – Group 1

2022–23

Primera Federación – Group 1, 10th of 20

Home colours

Away colours

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa (Spanish pronunciation: [kultuˈɾal i ðepoɾˈtiβa leoˈnesa]), better known as Cultural Leonesa or La Cultural, is a Spanish football team based in León, in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon. Founded on 5 August 1923, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at Estadio Reino de León, with a capacity of 13,346 seats.

Ahead of the 2014–15 season, the club released a kit designed to look like a tuxedo. The kit, which attracted huge attention in the media and social networking sites, was worn in a pre-season charity match in support of local charities for mining families.

History
Club structure
Season to season
Players
Coaching staff
Notable former players
Famous coaches
Stadium
Reserve team
See also

History

Deportivo de La Coruña vs. Cultural Leonesa.

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa was founded on 5 August 1923.

In 1926, Cultural Leonesa won the Regional championship and in 1929 Cultural played the Segunda División B and promoted to the second division.

In 1931, the club ceased activity and several teams were created in the city with the aim to replace them, but after the Spanish Civil War, Cultural Leonesa came back to the competition.

In 1955, Cultural was promoted for the first time to La Liga, but they could only play one season in the Spanish top tier.

In 2011, the club was relegated to Tercera División due to unpaid debts to the players and took two years to recover the place in the third tier. In 2015, the Qatari Aspire Academy bought a controlling 99% of the shares of the club, thus avoiding its dissolution.

On 28 May 2017, Cultural was promoted to Segunda División after 42 years by defeating Barcelona B in the promotion play-offs. On 3 January 2018, Leeds United announced an official partnership with Cultural Leonesa's owners Aspire Academy in Qatar. The link up saw Leeds players Yosuke Ideguchi and Ouasim Bouy both join Cultural Leonesa on loan as part of the unique partnership.

On 2 June 2018, Cultural was relegated to the third level, after being defeated by Numancia on the last matchday. In the 2018–19 season the club played in Segunda División B, Group 1 and fought to be promoted back to the second tier. But it finished only in the 5th position. The club had a good start on the 2019–20 season, being in the 2nd position after first 16 games. In the 2019–2020 season, they upset Atletico de Madrid in the Copa del Rey Round of 32.

On 2 December 2020, Cultural hired Iñigo Idiakez as Head Coach who came from Luton Town in EFL Championship and previously Leicester City and Derby County.

Club structure

Position					Name
President					Mohd Khalifa Al Suwadi
Vice-President
Managing Director					Felipe Llamazares Díez
Sports management					Ricardo Pozo Álvarez
Director Delegate					Ignacio Álvarez Martínez
Advisory Board					Antonio Martín Espina José Lasa Jassim Mohammed AA Al-Ansari
Fundation culturalista					Manuel Carnero Diego Calzado
Technical secretary					Santi Santos Juan Carlos Valiño (adjunto) César Villafañe (adjunto)
Social area					Juan Luis Diez Mata

Season to season

Season	Tier	Division	Place	Copa del Rey
1929	3	3ª	1st	Round of 32
1929–30	2	2ª	10th	Round of 32
1930–31	3	3ª	6th	Round of 32
1931–32	3	3ª	(W)
1932–1939	DNP
1939–40	3	1ª Reg.	2nd
1940–41	4	1ª Reg.	2nd
1941–42	3	1ª Reg.	1st
1942–43	2	2ª	3rd
1943–44	2	2ª	9th	Round of 32
1944–45	2	2ª	13th	First round
1945–46	3	3ª	3rd
1946–47	3	3ª	2nd
1947–48	3	3ª	8th	Fifth round
1948–49	3	3ª	7th	Second round
1949–50	3	3ª	5th
1950–51	3	3ª	5th
1951–52	3	3ª	3rd
1952–53	3	3ª	2nd
1953–54	2	2ª	4th

Season	Tier	Division	Place	Copa del Rey
1954–55	2	2ª	1st	Round of 16
1955–56	1	1ª	15th	Round of 16
1956–57	2	2ª	6th
1957–58	2	2ª	16th
1958–59	2	2ª	16th
1959–60	3	3ª	1st	Round of 16
1960–61	2	2ª	12th	First round
1961–62	2	2ª	16th	First round
1962–63	3	3ª	4th
1963–64	3	3ª	3rd
1964–65	3	3ª	7th
1965–66	3	3ª	2nd
1966–67	3	3ª	3rd
1967–68	3	3ª	1st
1968–69	3	3ª	4th
1969–70	3	3ª	2nd	Second round
1970–71	3	3ª	1st	Fourth round
1971–72	2	2ª	5th	Fifth round
1972–73	2	2ª	19th	Fourth round
1973–74	3	3ª	1st	Third round

Season	Tier	Division	Place	Copa del Rey
1974–75	2	2ª	20th	Fifth round
1975–76	3	3ª	6th	Second round
1976–77	3	3ª	2nd	First round
1977–78	3	2ª B	6th	Second round
1978–79	3	2ª B	5th	Second round
1979–80	3	2ª B	4th	Second round
1980–81	3	2ª B	4th	First round
1981–82	3	2ª B	19th	Second round
1982–83	3	2ª B	19th
1983–84	4	3ª	2nd
1984–85	4	3ª	2nd	First round
1985–86	4	3ª	1st	First round
1986–87	4	3ª	2nd	Third round
1987–88	3	2ª B	14th	First round
1988–89	3	2ª B	8th	First round
1989–90	3	2ª B	7th
1990–91	3	2ª B	9th	Second round
1991–92	3	2ª B	6th	Second round
1992–93	3	2ª B	10th	Second round
1993–94	3	2ª B	17th	Third round

Season	Tier	Division	Place	Copa del Rey
1994–95	4	3ª	1st	Third round
1995–96	3	2ª B	4th	Second round
1996–97	3	2ª B	8th	First round
1997–98	3	2ª B	4th
1998–99	3	2ª B	1st	First round
1999–2000	3	2ª B	9th	Preliminary
2000–01	3	2ª B	2nd
2001–02	3	2ª B	2nd	Round of 32
2002–03	3	2ª B	5th	Round of 32
2003–04	3	2ª B	4th	Round of 32
2004–05	3	2ª B	10th	Round of 32
2005–06	3	2ª B	14th
2006–07	3	2ª B	11th
2007–08	3	2ª B	11th
2008–09	3	2ª B	2nd
2009–10	3	2ª B	12th	Round of 32
2010–11	3	2ª B	14th
2011–12	4	3ª	3rd
2012–13	4	3ª	2nd
2013–14	3	2ª B	14th

Season	Tier	Division	Place	Copa del Rey
2014–15	3	2ª B	7th
2015–16	3	2ª B	7th	Second round
2016–17	3	2ª B	1st	Round of 32
2017–18	2	2ª	19th	Third round
2018–19	3	2ª B	5th	Round of 32
2019–20	3	2ª B	2nd	Round of 16
2020–21	3	2ª B	2nd / 6th	Second round
2021–22	3	1ª RFEF	12th	Second round
2022–23	3	1ª Fed.	10th
2023–24	3	1ª Fed.	6th
2024–25	3	1ª Fed.

1 season in La Liga
15 seasons in Segunda División
4 seasons in Primera Federación/Primera División RFEF
36 seasons in Segunda División B
33 seasons in Tercera División

Players

Current squad

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Miguel Bañuz
2	DF	Víctor García
3	DF	Eneko Satrústegui
4	DF	Rodri Suárez
5	DF	Quique Fornos
6	MF	Kevin Presa
7	FW	Carlos Calderón
8	MF	Diego Barri
9	FW	Manu Justo
10	FW	Luis Chacón (on loan from RC Deportivo de La Coruña)
11	FW	Santi Samanes

No.	Position	Player
12	DF	Guzmán Ortega
13	GK	Alejandro Amigo
14	MF	Bicho
15	DF	Víctor Ruiz
16	MF	Sergi Maestre
17	DF	Álvaro Martínez
19	FW	Antón Escobar
20	MF	Txus Alba
21	FW	Juan Artola
22	FW	Pibe

Reserve team

No.	Position	Player
26	GK	Joel Ruiz
27	MF	Kirian Ramírez
28	MF	Adrián Ruiz
29	DF	Santi Prado
30	FW	Adri Álvarez
31	FW	Ian Martínez

Out on loan

No.		Position	Player
		MF	Nico Toca (at RS Gimnástica de Torrelavega until 30 June 2025)
		FW	David López (at CD Illescas until 30 June 2025)

Coaching staff

Position					Name
Head coach					Raúl Llona
Assistant Coach					Odei Calzón
Fitness coach					David Madurga
Goalkeeper coach					Javier Pérez
Material Manager					Carlos Gómez Carballo
Material Manager					Manuel Martínez Sela
Doctor					Salustiano López-Contreras
Analyst					Pedro Gómez
Re-trainer					Álex Bienzobas
Physiotherapist					Pedro Vicente
Team Delegate					Eduardo Álvarez
Material Manager					Rubén Álvarez

Notable former players

Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.

César
Chema
Iván Casquero
Sergio Fernández
Santi Santos
Yosuke Ideguchi
Almoez Ali

Famous coaches

Miguel Ángel Rubio

Stadium

C. Leonesa vs. Sabadell, in the 2008–09 Segunda División promotion playoffs

Reserve team

Júpiter Leonés is the reserve team of the club.

Founded in 1929, later known as Cultural de León and finally changed to its current name Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa "B" Jupiter Leonés. After the 2009–10, the team was dissolved after Cultural was relegated to Tercera División due to its debts. In 2014, it was re-founded as the reserve team and after three promotions it currently plays in Tercera División, the fourth tier, after gaining promotion in the Primera División Regional de Aficionados 2017–18 season.